


Cause

by orelseatlastsheunderstoodit



Category: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alderaan, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, One Shot, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2336537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orelseatlastsheunderstoodit/pseuds/orelseatlastsheunderstoodit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a recon mission for the Rebel Alliance, an Alderaani Intel officer gets captured and sentenced to death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cause

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the sandbox containing the Galaxy Far Far Away; I just play there, making transformative works. This was one of my first forays into writing fic, so it's probably around ten years old. It is what it is.

They shimmied up the embankment, and Daniel pulled out his macrobinoculars and scanned the area in front of them. "Shavit," he said softly. 

"What's wrong, boss?" 

"We were damn near dropped onto that facility, Sten--we're supposed to be looking, not infiltrating." 

"We're that close?" 

"Practically. Here, take a look," he said, handing his partner the macrobinoculars. 

Sten took one glance and let out a low whistle. "Damn." 

"Give them back, and set up the transmitter. Use code alpha-delta-1-beta-2-juliet-3." 

"Yes, sir." 

There was a click and a whirr, then a soft, "All set." 

"Start transmission," Daniel said, then paused to allow the transmitter to start working. "Base, Messenger. Three spires, two inhabitants each. Two lines, alternating beats. Will measure time between repeats. Sparky is a good dancer--but he's more of a fencer. He prefers the fight. End transmission." 

A whirr, then a click. "Done." 

"Now, we wait." 

Sten pulled a ration bar from a pocket and ripped it open. He broke it in half and offered half to Daniel. "Hungry?" 

Daniel checked his chrono, flicking his eyes between it and the patrol lines. "No. Not until we're back at the RV point." 

"We're going to be here all night, Captain. So you might as well settle down." 

"No can do, Lieutenant. I want this info to be right so we can bomb the hell outta this place." 

Sten chuckled. "You're always so intense, Dan. You and me, we're best friends, but you puzzle me." 

Dan slid down the embankment to sit next to Sten. He took his half of the ration bar. "Well, this is serious work, and I'm going to be serious. When you've been in as long as I have, you don't loosen up really well. I'm surprised that we even became friends." 

"Well, you can't be all jaded." 

"I just don't like making friends with people who might be dead within two days, you know?" 

"I know." Sten leaned back against the hill and clasped his hands behind his head. "What I don't know is why you're so against the Empire." 

Daniel laughed. "Oh, that's easy," he said. "The Empire is a governmental system that oppresses aliens and women. The Emperor killed off the Jedi and ruined the Republic, after hanging onto his Chancellorship for way too long during the Clone Wars." 

"Those are the political reasons," Sten protested. "Why are you, Captain Daniel Dantre, of Alderaan, fighting the Empire?" 

Daniel sighed. "Don't believe that pacifist stuff," he said. "We're all secretly fighters at the core. Why else would the Rebellion have originated there?" 

"C'mon, tell me." 

"My mother thinks I'm an embassy aide," he said. "But I joined Rebel Intel at eighteen because my father was killed in a speeder crash when I was fourteen." 

"Well, that's the short short version," Sten said. 

"My dad was one of those simple guys trying to make his way in this messed-up galaxy," Dan said. "He was a writer--and he edited a paper. Well, my father never agreed with the Empire--he'd never liked Palpatine as Chancellor, either. Always creeped him out, he said. Anyway, one day, they come along and tell him that he, to be a good loyal Imperial citizen, has to shut his paper down. He couldn't take that sitting down--so he sent all his people home and planned out the next issue of the paper, in which the main article was to be an editorial exposing the Empire as the evil charlatans they are. It never got published. Officially." 

"What happened?" 

Daniel took a deep breath. "The officials who came to inform us of his death weren't even sorry. They even implied that it had happened because Dad hadn't been a good Imperial. They warned us to be good and loyal, so we'd be safe." He spat off to one side. "Like I want to be an overly patriotic brainwashed informer like the mole they'd planted in Dad's office." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Thanks, Sten," Daniel said. He turned and climbed back up the embankment and began scanning again. 

Later, in the early hours of gray before dawn, Daniel had Sten set up the transmitter again. 

"Start transmission," he said. "Base, Messenger. Time between repeats: thirty minutes, alternators pass every fifteen. Spire's inhabitants rotate every hour. All armed with newest deaththrowers." 

Somewhere behind them a stick cracked. "End transmission," Daniel said. "Do it now!" 

Whirr, click. "Done." 

"I'll take care of this. Get to the RV site, Sten." 

"But, sir--" 

"No buts, Lieutenant. If the pickup comes and I'm not there, leave. That's an order." 

"Yes, sir," said Sten. He turned to leave. 

"And Sten?" 

Sten turned back. "Yes, sir?" 

"I wrote a letter to my mother. Make sure she gets it, all right?" 

"You'll get to send it." 

"Just promise me, okay?" 

"I promise." 

"Now, go!" 

Sten hurried off as quietly as possible. Daniel unholstered his blaster and crept down the embankment towards the direction of the sound. There was no way that the pair of them could be discovered, or else the facility would be moved. One was fine, because the Imps thought that one man could be stopped. He halted behind a large tree, and glanced out into the small clearing. 

It was an Imperial soldier--not a stormtrooper, so more of a threat--and he was standing there, looking around, seemingly listening. 

One is easy to take down, Daniel thought. He raised his blaster but never got to fire it. 

Something cracked him on the back of the head and he fell to the ground. 

*** 

The first thing he noticed was the pounding headache he had. The second was the fact that he was in a sort of holding cell. "Damn," he said, then winced as the words reverberated through his skull. "I'm not dead, then." 

"No, you're not," said a voice, and Daniel looked at the doorway to see a uniformed Imp standing there, looking smug. "You might wish you were, when we were done." 

"Who knows? I might be." 

The Imp dangled Daniel's tags from his fingers. "We're checking to see if you're in our files, Rebel," he said, tossing the tags to Daniel, who caught them and put them on. 

"Well, I guess that means I can't really lie about who I am, then," he said. 

"I guess not," the Imp said, smirking. "I recognize your accent, scum. It's Alderaani." 

"I'm faking it," he said. 

"It's rather good." 

"I had good coaches." 

"Alderaani coaches?" 

"We captured some Alderaani and made them tutor us in their speech patterns," Daniel lied. After four years, lying came much easier than when he had first started out. 

The Imp pulled out a comlink, then answered in the affirmative. He crossed the room and hauled Daniel to his feet. "The garrison commander would like to see you," he said as he led Daniel to the commander's office. 

It was sparsely furnished, indicating to Daniel that this was one commander who didn't gorge himself with luxuries that his Imperial rank almost demanded. That was admirable. The commander nodded when the officer and Daniel entered. He was an older man, about the age that Daniel's father would have been, had he lived that long. 

"Ah, Captain Dantre," the commander said. 

"Who?" 

"Don't play stupid with me, boy," the commander said. "I was shooting spies before you were born." He picked up a piece of paper and began to read. "Captain Daniel Michio Dantre, eldest son of Benjamin Forbes Dantre, of Alderaan. Twenty-two years old. Joined the Rebellion at eighteen. Has worked for the Rebel Intel Department for four years. Done significant damage to the Empire. Mother a schoolteacher. Brother, age 10. Sister, age 8. Eight years ago father was liquidated for seditious opinions and refusal to cease and desist." The commander looked at the young man in front of him. "Like father, like son, eh? Was this your motive, boy?" 

"Believe what you want," Daniel said. 

The commander stood. "You were caught in the woods attempting to murder a loyal soldier of the Empire," he said. "Several of our scanners picked up on the fact that transmissions were being sent from the area you were found in. Unfortunately, those transmissions were not intercepted by us." 

Daniel smiled a little. That means Sten escaped. 

"Were you alone in those woods?" 

"Yes, sir, I was." 

"It takes two men to work the transmitting equipment; no such equipment was found with you--and yet you state that you were alone?" 

"I was alone when I was captured, was I not?" 

"Don't play the role of smart arse, young man," the commander said. "It's unbecoming." 

The commander circled his desk and stopped in front of Daniel. "Your Rebel friends will not be coming to get you," he said. "The Empire is going to make an example of you." 

Daniel took a deep breath. "An example? Of me? Whatever for?" 

The commander dismissed the officer who'd brought Daniel in, then sat on the edge of his desk. "We will not be risking the chance of rescue with you. The information you carry is far less important to us than the fact that you will no longer be in the Rebellion. Demonstrations of force--of power--are sometimes necessary to keep the commoners in line," he said. He straightened and went behind his desk, sat and shuffled through some papers. "Four years in the Rebellion. I must admit, boy, that I don't quite understand you. Your loyalty to a cause that will ultimately fail. Your determination to fight in something that doesn't care for you. Though, I do admire your courage. Had we met under different circumstances, I do believe that I would have liked you." 

Daniel met the man's eyes. They were dark and intense, and a little sad. "You seem to be a fair man," Daniel said. "I have seen other commanders' offices far more lavish than this." 

"This is serious work, and I'm a serious man," the commander said. "I do my job, Dantre, and I do it well. It is not my place to disagree with my superiors." 

"Yet you do." 

"It is not my place. There is a fine line between what the uniform believes and what the civilian believes. As you can see, I'm in the uniform," he said. He leaned back in his chair. "You're to be executed tomorrow morning, for high treason to the Empire." 

Daniel nodded. "I'm proud to die for the cause," he said. "Because you're wrong, you know. It won't ultimately fail. The Rebellion does care for the people like me. Like my father. Like my mother and my siblings. I have only one request." 

"What is it?" 

"Don't hurt my family because of what I have done. They don't even know what I've been doing these past four years." 

The commander raised an eyebrow. "So, you fight for them, and they don't even know it?" He seemed to deliberating over it. Then he nodded. "Granted. The Empire would not want to harm innocent citizens for the acts of their traitorous kindred." 

"Thank you, sir." 

The commander pressed a button and spoke into his desk's comm. "Escort Captain Dantre to his cell." 

Two troopers came in and escorted him out. 

*** 

Daniel sat on his bunk, knees drawn up. He rested his head against the block wall. This is it, he thought. No heroic last stand--just death by execution. I should have expected it. Four years. Four years is a lot longer that what some of those kids I knew had to fight the Empire. I got to make a difference, however small. I'm nobody important, just an angry kid from Alderaan. I'm no Bail Organa. I've just done what I thought was right. What was just. I just wish that I knew if Mom knows. I'd like to know that she'd get that letter Sten will be sending. That she'd forgive me for lying to her for four years. 

He looked up at the ceiling. Bright lights flooded the cell, making it difficult to sleep. Then again, it might have been the fact that he was to be murdered by the Empire in the morning that kept him awake. He wasn't entirely sure. Daniel dug in his jacket and pulled out a tattered holograph. A woman and two kids looked out at him, faces happily smiling. "I'm doing this for you guys, you know," he whispered. "I love you, Mom. Benny. Jalyn." He hid the holo away again and tried to sleep. 

His dreams were haunted by images of instantaneous deaths--the Intel Department had been working with the information that the Empire had developed a superweapon called the Death Star for weeks now. They had been on the verge of receiving the technical readouts when the Tantive IV had been hijacked by the Empire. It had been rumored that the Emperor's henchman, Darth Vader, had been in command of the chase--and that all aboard had been killed. Daniel had gone on his mission the day after the news. 

Daniel woke up, eyes wide. He could hear the sounds of booted feet in the corridor--and when the door slid open, he wasn't surprised. He stood and walked calmly with the two officers that had been sent to escort him to the firing range. The commander waited in the courtyard along with a squad of Imperial marksmen--Daniel had to smile at that seemingly ironic paradox. 

The commander looked at the young man who stood at attention before him. "The Empire graciously extends one last chance to you," he said. "Renounce the Rebellion, and we'll give you a place among us as one of our own. You'd be a great asset to us." 

Daniel squared his shoulders. "And be a traitor? You've mistaken about me, sir," he said. "I cannot and will not compromise my integrity to get myself out of a situation, even one such as this. This cause--the cause of good--will ultimately triumph, and I can't stop believing in that. If I joined you, I'd be denying everything--and everyone--that I've ever loved. I'm sorry you have to do this--but, somehow, I'm not sorry." 

The commander nodded, and Daniel was put into position. The squad fired. 

*** 

As the Rebel's body slumped to the ground, a sergeant came into the courtyard, breathless. "Commander," he said. 

"What is it?" the commander snapped. 

"Alderaan's been destroyed by the Death Star," he said. 

The sergeant was met with silence, as the commander watched the Rebel boy's eyes close. He wasn't sure if the boy had heard the announcement or not, and he wished to all things decent and good in the galaxy that he hadn't. 

That was because he, as well as the boy, wished that good would ultimately triumph. But he had a job, and he did it well, even if it meant the life of a comrade-in-arms.


End file.
